"First they came for the local radio hosts...." If you want a glimpse into the real, practical mechanisms whereby unprincipled political power diminishes and silences opposing voices, look not to the nationally-publicized attacks on Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck. Look to what happens at the local level, to people who do not have a national microphone and millions of defenders. Consider the example of Brainerd, Minnesota's (population 13,613) local conservative radio show.

For almost two years, Guy Green and his partner Tony Bauer have hosted The Speakeasy with Guy Green, a two-hour political talk show airing five nights a week on Brainerd's 3Wi Radio. Uncompromising conservatives, they tackle a variety of local, national, and international issues with equal parts well-researched detail, principled intelligence, and charm. Though a local program on a small station, their hard work has allowed them to attract the highest quality guests, and their seriousness has allowed them to bring those guests (Roger Kimball, Michael Ledeen, Andrew McCarthy, and Jack Cashill, for a very small sample) back for repeat appearances.

The show's hosts are not rich men, and they are not paid to appear on the air. On the contrary, Green paid handsomely for the air time the first year, including a hefty down payment to prove good faith for the air time, and seeks to cover his operating expenses with local sponsors and listener donations. (The station's former owner and now manager agreed to waive the air time fee for the second year, due to the show's success.) Green and Bauer, both grandfathers, are doing this because they could not sit by and watch their country being swallowed up by progressive politicians and an enabling media. This radio program is their attempt to contribute something to the fight.

NOTE THE LEFT’s MOST RECENT STRATEGERY ( Rush now likes to use that word ) FOR KILLING CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO:

Recently, a new, left-leaning owner purchased the station, with the apparent intention of changing its all-talk (i.e. primarily conservative) format to a music format.

Green has heard from a major radio executive that this is a new strategy of the progressives. Having learned the hard way that liberal talk radio cannot compete for listeners with conservative hosts — the reason is obvious, and explains the “need” for NPR: extended political discussion, in order to be engaging, requires rational arguments and supporting facts, which leftists cannot provide — the left has hit upon the “slow-burned earth” tactic of gradually buying up local stations and converting them off the talk radio format altogether.

I've made the case for years that the news and entertainment business is not a business at all.

Newspapers, radio stations, TV shows, movies ... the crap that is produced doesn't really sell all that well. Who reads the Boston Globe? Who watches CNN? These outlets could make more money is they were more flexible in their viewpoints. Look at Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" -- it made huge money! Did Hollywood follow that up with a much of copy cat Biblical flicks? Not on your life.

They aren't looking for profits (profits are bad) -- they just want hearts and minds. The fact that successful conservative talk radio stations are being purchased, just so that they can adopt some other format (any other format) is an indication that the owners aren't looking for success or money. They just want to squash a viewpoint and they are willing to spend some money to do so.

3
posted on 01/22/2013 7:38:22 AM PST
by ClearCase_guy
(Nothing will change until after the war.)

Maybe it’s just me, but I almost never watch cable news or listen to talk radio. They are such garbage. I do my research online and read as many sources about a story as I can. Sure, I’ll watch some clips of events, but TV “news entertainment”? Please.

Am I the only one? Do most here watch/kisten to that drivel? I don’t care if it is proclaimed as Conservative, it’s crap.

Kill off all pundit shows and news entertainment shows. They won’t be missed.

There is no question that the media is not run on a profit-driven structure and instead is a propaganda arm of the government.

I have maintained for years that book advances from media conglomerates were one way to provide payola to various leftists such as the clintons, leftist screed writers, and most notably, Obama. Here received two book advances for doing exactly nothing. It was payola. And the beat goes on.

What a sad thought for our country?

10
posted on 01/22/2013 7:49:12 AM PST
by Chickensoup
(200 million unarmed people killed in the 20th century by Leftist Totalitarian Fascists)

They are such garbage. I do my research online and read as many sources about a story as I can.

One very big issue with this: the Internet can be hacked, modified, even silenced. Rush gets on the air, we KNOW it's Rush, we know his voice, and we know that he's not going to give up his principles to fill the airwaves with lies, distortions, or outright propaganda.

You go to a "reliable" website that's been compromised, and you have no idea if the information being disseminated is true or not. In the event of an EMP, sunspots, or other catastrophic electromagnetic event, the Internet, switches, routers, servers are all kaput. A basic HAM radio can be put together with the proper components to get back on the air.

Radio is a tried-and-true method for information dissemination. It's been in use for almost a century, and there are plenty of HAMs out here, myself included, who can open lines of communication where a digital network can be compromised.

11
posted on 01/22/2013 7:52:48 AM PST
by rarestia
(It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)

They aren't looking for profits (profits are bad) -- they just want hearts and minds. The fact that successful conservative talk radio stations are being purchased, just so that they can adopt some other format (any other format) is an indication that the owners aren't looking for success or money. They just want to squash a viewpoint and they are willing to spend some money to do so.

Absolutely correct. It's high time the right got in the game and started purchasing media for reasons other than making money. This is a war, the right needs to join it or be wiped out.

Am I the only one? Do most here watch/kisten to that drivel? I dont care if it is proclaimed as Conservative, its crap.

That's your opinion and you are entitled to it.

I've been staying away from all cable news and listening only a few hours a week of Quinn in the AM and Rush in the PM. But yesterday, obama coronation day, Mark Steyn, your undocumented radio substitute, from ice station zebra, was in for Rush and I laughed for three hours.

The man is very conservative but very gifted at seeing humor in the darkest events.

He and a caller from White Plains, NY, did a skit about squirrels and nuts and peta and assault rifles, that had me howling.

It may be drivel, but I haven't laughed at a political subject since november 6th, 2012, a day that will live in infamy.

Many of these station changes involve change from a talk format to a “jock-in-the-box” automated music station, with no live “talent” except for announcements and canned blurbs about the music.

They don’t pull in much listenership but are very very cheap to run, so are more profitable than a traditional music station where you pay for “personalities”, or a talk station where, again, you pay for “personalities”.

Some if not all of this is driven by more and more people getting music online or by satellite, lots of cars have WiFi nodes and better.

I know people that use the USB port in their new car radios to listen to podcasts. I don’t know how prevalent this is but it may be a factor, you don’t miss any talk when you get out of the car.

They killed off the local conservative talk shows in Memphis. Either they have added other hosts that are variations of Liberal to drown out the remaining (weak) Conservative, or they replaced the show with a national one.

16
posted on 01/22/2013 8:23:43 AM PST
by Ingtar
(Everyone complains about the weather, but only Liberals try to legislate it.)

There is nothing, other than motivation, to stop wealthy conservatives from doing the same thing.

They could buy stations like this to protect them from liberal takeovers and buy liberal stations and convert them.
That would be a start to rolling liberalism back a little

One thing you cannot take away from liberals is their persistence.
They are always pushing their agenda 24/7.

More often than not liberals are the aggressors and conservatives are the defenders.
When you are defending, your objective is to maintain the status quo.
When you are attacking your objective is to gain ground - to move the defenders back.

That is why liberals are always hollering about compromise.
Every compromise advances the attacker and rolls back the defender.

As Ayn Rand said: “In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.”

I’d be careful about falling for the same conspiracy theories that the Libs start floating whenever a Progressive Talker bites the dust (Detroit, San Diego, etc.)

It’s a BIDNESS. If the ad sales and the revenue aren’t there the owners are going to try something else. Conservative Talk, Liberal Talk, Martian Talk, Gregorian Chant...whatever they think will sell ad slots.

On the other hand any owner who would flip an AM station from talk to music makes me VERY suspicious.

They can sustain losses for only so long before reality sets in and sanity reveals itself in the morning.

One of my beliefs is that much of the media money comes from three sources:

1) Arabs 2) China 3) Russia

These funding sources are not looking for profits, have virtually limitless resources, and will pour money into this country in order to shape our culture in ways that help them achieve their goals.

I see how the media refuses to portray Arabs as terrorists and bad guys -- TV and film always indicates that "white supremacists" are bombing the bejeezus out of our cities. The funding sources like it that way.

26
posted on 01/22/2013 9:25:32 AM PST
by ClearCase_guy
(Nothing will change until after the war.)

It’s well known that one reason so many movie characters smoke us that tobacco companies give studios money to show tobacco use in a positive light.

What do you think keeps them from taking money to show homosexuality in a positive light? Or socialism in a positive light? Or the most heinous enemies and acts against our constitutional values in a positive light, as long as there are enough numbers on the checks special interests write?

Nothing at all. Ever wonder how a movie industry that publishes financial losses year after year ($1.9B last year) continues to thrive and make more crappy movies and programs than ever before?

It’s because Programming the People Pays. If a movie is entertaining, that’s frosting on the cake. But it’s Programming the People that gives Hollywood its Paycheck.

Without talk radio you would lose Conservative allies in a war we have already been losing for decades in our culture and on policy. It would have a significant negative impact on Conservative causes whether you like it or not.

Most of those here obviously get a lot of their information online, but some not only get most of their news from radio, but stay politically motivated by rallying around a Conservative commentator.

I like the few in talk radio who aren't afraid to tell the depressing reality of our situation. Those like Mark Levin who admit the hellish nightmare we are in are very important. Many aren't passionate enough. They lie to themselves, and their audience that they can save themselves within a fraudulent broken system that keeps getting worse.

Those who are truthful in radio don't have the answers either, because good answers don't exist. I wish they would all get more realistic, and help prepare people to make some hard decisions soon.

There is no way to keep the entire union together much longer. There is no possible way to regain the massive amounts of liberty we have lost, or restore our Constitution working through the enormous tyrannical monstrosity of a government we built. We haven't even been able to stop radical leftism from advancing for decades, so there is no excuse to pretend we will now stop it now. It's even more ludicrous to believe it can ever be reversed

Our current government can never be close to being a Constitutional government, with any resemblance to what our founders envisioned. People can accept living as oppressed subjects under an unconstitutional tyrannical government, that soon collapses because of it's well known unsustainable, or they can support some type of succession and/or conflict with the federal government to rid ones self of it's tyranny. There aren't many choices out there. The more who accept this reality the better chance we have at regaining some of the good that our nation was built on. Our current federal government must fall, and then be rebuilt from ashes for any chance to ever have a government that doesn't walk all over our Constitution. It can't be reformed. Some will try to holdout long enough to shamelessly pass the huge problems on to their children and grandchildren, but I don't think that much time exist for most.

It won't work, They will pay a lot, run the ratings into the ground. Libs can only keep in office by promising freebies not their ideas.Look what they have done to the newspapers, nightly news and their web sites do not attract alot of traffic.

I am more concerned with the leftward drift in what was “Conservative” talk radio

We have so called conservatives now pushing liberal ideas like Illegal Alien Amnesty...pushing Amnesty Liberals like Marco Rubio as conservatives....attacking Obama Eligibility people, while giving cover to Obama. Conservative talk radio is losing audience because it is no longer conservative....and station owners realize this

I fully agree. As badly as the right wants to pick up the pieces and reverse course the left wants to finish our nation off before it can be repaired and seems to stop at nothing including sacrificing revenue, profit, self respect and dignity to complete this radical end goal. It is an evil goal and plan that if not stopped will usher in a dark period of American history filled with pain, misery, death and destruction. We still have Conservative Talk Radio thank God as our main weapon to fight back these Joe Geobbels inspired liberal "reporters" in the so called "press"

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